The best of Lollapalooza 2008: Artists speak international language of music
By Amy Oprean
Published: August 5th, 2008 | 10:10am
Arriving at Lollapalooza early on the first day is, in a word, ambitious. With the 90-plus degree heat that never fails to swallow Chicago’s Grant Park in a thick haze the first weekend of every August, you may not be too eager to get that flashy sunglass-shaped suntan started so soon. But there are rewards to showing up early as well as staying late, as the performances are memorable every year. Here are some highlights of the best performances of Lollapalooza 2008.
THE GO! TEAM
Beginning their set at the north end of the park at 2:15 p.m. on Friday, August 1, the six-piece English dance band took to the stage like school children to a playground. Dressed in colorful T-shirts, skirts, and leggings, their mix of hip-hop, rock, ’70s action-movie music, and pep-rally cheer, they were the kind of kids you’d want to come to your birthday party. Often switching instruments and leaping across stage in organized unison, the band couldn’t get enough of their own theatrics. This was the case doubly so for lead vocalist Ninja, who, in a bright red skirt and multicolored tube socks, took up the entire space allotted by kicking, twirling, and then stopping to salute the crowd. Consistently demanding that everyone within eyesight continue dancing, she took it a step further near the end of the set when she warned, somewhat seriously, that the instruments would stop if the jumping did. Though they had considerably less room to work with, their spectators were more than happy to oblige.
GOGOL BORDELLO
You could hear Eugene Hutz’s lunatic scream halfway across Grant Park as his crew of gypsy punks took the At&T stage at 4:15. In the opening lines of “Ultimate,” the reckless howl of the brazen, medallion-laden lead singer was enough to make any concertgoer feeling midday fatigue to think twice about napping just yet.
Though the jam-packed festival crowd had little breathing room, let alone dance space, crowd surfing commenced almost immediately after Yuri Lemeshev’s accordion and Sergey Ryabtsev violin began to race, then waltz, then race again through Eastern European punk. At the third song mark, backup singers-dancers Pamela Racine and Elizabeth Sun appeared for the first time, via racing onstage and screaming into the mics in a feigned state of hysterics. Hutz ditched his shirt soon after, and, with his wide eyes dashing around the crowd, performed songs including “Supertheory of Super Everything” and “60 Revolutions,” projecting almost the same amount of intensity as their much smaller club shows — which is saying a lot.
DEVOTCHKA
For their 3:30 p.m. set on the Playstation Stage on Saturday, DeVotchKa violinist Tom Hagerman appeared first, playing a slow opening solo that sounded like heartache, while the rest of his band mates appeared and took their places among their many instruments. There was the standard drum kit for Shawn King along with his trumpet, Hagerman’s accordion and keyboard, as well as Jeannie Schroder’s double bass and sousaphone — a tuba that can be played standing up, and Nick Urata, who, in addition to playing the guitar and singing, would be playing a theremin — an electronic instrument that looks like an AM radio and is played without being touched. These many devices amounted an extremely unique mix of sounds from the formally dressed Denver ensemble — Romani, Greek, Slavic, mariachi, folk, polka, tango — were all present in their songs of heartbreak, farewells and love. Though it took a while for the band to come out from behind the sunglasses, the comfort level grew increasingly with each song. “You wrote me letters I didn’t read / Still I caressed you,” Urata confessed. Rose petals would have been thrown, had anyone had any.
KID SISTER
At 12:15 p.m. Sunday, there couldn’t have been a happier performer on the AT&T stage than Kid Sister. “Chicago! Main stage, what the hell?!” The genuine excitement to be performing in her hometown was evident as soon as she came onstage. Dressed in a purple dress with gold accessories and neo-soul curls, she looked like a modern-day funk star soaking in her homecoming. “When the sun starts beating down and Lakeshore Drive starts looking real good, you gotta get your nails done,” she said before performing her breakout hit, “Pro Nails.”
Wearing brightly colored shoulder pads that looked like something out of the Power Rangers, Sister’s backup dancers were working some aggressive robotics, then freezing abruptly like mannequins, and, at one point, playing patty-cake. This, coupled with a great DJ and sampling, amounted to the ultimate party for Chi-town’s rising star.
BRAZILIAN GIRLS
Not a stranger to dressing like a dominatrix onstage, Brazilian Girls singer Sabina Sciubba was looking softer than one might expect in a short white dress with fanned-out sleeves that made her look like a swan. This, however, did not mean the towering, unwaveringly confident singer was going to be subdued during the pulsating, dirty beats that filled much of their set. They started out with “Strange Boy,” a slow groove that quickly became louder, faster, more threatening. The group hit the high point of these electronic pleasures with “Don’t Stop,” a naughty, hypnotically repetitive mid-tempo number layered with synth. Yet there is another side of Brazilian Girls, as could be seen with their new single “Good Time” as well as several other songs about travel to far away places. Scuibba, it seemed, isn’t only your guide to serious sexuality but to international travel, carefree nights that turn into mornings, and tongue-and-cheek combinations of all of the above. “There is the international language of love, there is the international language of money, and there is the international language of ‘Pussy Pussy Pussy Marijuana,” she said. The crowd cheered at the mention of the band’s Caribbean jam. “Everywhere we go, people seem to get it. I wonder why.”
MARK RONSON
What does a guy who needs other people to make songs do for his live show? He brings them all to his shows. Mark Ronson, the U.K. DJ whose album Version features popular musicians covering other popular musician’s music, played his set on the MySpace stage Sunday night with many friends. Candy Payne took the place of Lilly Allen for their cover of “Oh My God,” but many of the album’s real cameos were amazingly lined up backstage, as Ronson humorously announced in game-show host voice, “Who will be our next contestant?” Kenna, Daniel Merriweather, and Alex Greenwald from Phantom Planet were all there to sing their respective tracks on the album. Perhaps as a thank-you for his vocals on “Amy,” the Ryan Adams track covered on Version, Ronson also had his band play Kenna’s song “Out of Control.” With Merriweather, they took on a soul-funk rendition of the White Stripes’ “You Don’t Know What Love Is (You Just Do What You’re Told)” before playing Version’s best track, the Charlatans’ “Stop Me.” Giving his lot of singers a breather, Ronson took an instrumental interlude by asking excitedly, “Does anyone like trumpets?” The answer — a unanimous “Yes” — prompted the brass version of “God Put A Smile Upon Her Face” by Coldplay.
NINE INCH NAILS
There is a reason why Nine Inch Nails can play Lollapalooza in both 1991 and 2008 — their live show is incredible. Throughout the nearly two-hour set, the band pounded through an entire catalog of industrial rock with brute force and expertise. The despair, hope, destruction, power, and control that characterize Reznor’s songs came to life with a visually captivating stage setup. There was a cage that would sometimes lower in front of the band, lighting that looked like rings of blue fire, and backdrops of gray skies and burned out forests. At one point, white static enveloped the stage and band members appeared as silhouettes that would fade in and out sight — all the while Reznor singing “Sometimes I can see right through myself.”
Reznor, a magnetic stage presence on any day, put on an exceptional performance that included a xylophone solo as well as several violent-looking guitar solos. Afterward he clutched the mic with fingers, singing, “I got my fist, I got my plan, I got my survivalism,” lyrics off their 2007 release Year Zero. They got “Closer” out of the way in the first half of the set, but saved “Hurt” for the second to last song, before which Reznor expressed his gratitude to the crowd. “Seventeen summers ago we got a call from Perry Farrell, asking us to be in the first Lollapalooza,” “And it completely blows my mind that A, I’m still alive, and B, I’m playing on this stage playing in front of a full house of people, with the best musicians in the world.”
Issue #35
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